Legislative Black Caucus Calls For Change

Pictures of black men killed by police, displayed at a news conference for the Legislative Black Caucus.

Katie Orr, Capital Public Radio

In response to the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, California's Legislative Black Caucus held an impassioned news conference today pointing to several black men who’ve been killed by police in the past few years.

“When he walks through the park, one of three young boys, one Anglo, one Latino, and the neighborhood security firm stops and asks only him where is he going with an arm full of books and doesn’t ask the other two, I have to clarify for him why that happened," she says. "And, further, I have to tell him what he has to do to stay safe.”

Several other lawmakers echoed Mitchell’s experience. The Caucus says it will do what it can legislatively to improve the situation. But they say the nation needs to readjust how it views black men.